Preview of Member Only Content
For full access: 
or Become a Member 
Sixth Circuit: SCA Unconstitutional to Extent It Permits Warrantless Seizure of Emails From ISP
By Martin G. Weinberg; Robert M. Goldstein
In the August 2007 issue of The Champion, we authored an article
contending that the government’s use of the Stored Communications Act1
(SCA) to seize emails from a citizen’s Internet Service Provider (ISP)
without a warrant violated the Fourth Amendment, relying upon Warshak v.
United States2 — a case we both litigated — as a paradigm for future
litigation regarding the intersection of the SCA and the Fourth
Amendment. Steven Warshak was the target of a federal criminal
investigation. He brought a civil challenge to the government’s use of
secret subpoenas, issued pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 2703(b) and § 2703(d),
to compel his ISP to produce more than 26,000 emails. A panel of the
Sixth Circuit originally held that the government’s warrantless seizure
of the emails did indeed violate the Fourth Amendment, but that decision
was subsequently vacated on procedural grounds by the en banc court,3
which deferred deciding the grave Fourth Amendment issues raised by t
Want to read more?
The Champion archive is reserved for NACDL members.
NACDL members, please login to read the rest of this article.
Not a member? Join now.
Or click here to see an overview of NACDL Member benefits.
See what NACDL members say about us.
To read the current issue of The Champion in its entirety, click here.
- Media inquiries: Contact NACDL's Director of Public Affairs & Communications Ivan J. Dominguez at 202-465-7662 or idominguez@nacdl.org
- Academic Requests: Full articles of The Champion Magazine are available for academic and research purposes in the WestLaw and LexisNexis databases.